The Voice of Mom

Cate and I are fortunate to deal with several really great PR people. These folks take the time to research our site before sending pitches, they have worked to make connections with us and most importantly, their pitches are smart and well thought out.  I cannot tell you how much we appreciate a press release from someone who is both an advocate for their product and a knowledgeable speaker who has actually checked out our site. That kind of follow-through is absolutely essential for positive relations.

Unfortunately, not everyone does that due dilligence. In fact, some are quite guilty of making massive mistakes.

Take the PR people from a major firm that is doing PR for a major oatmeal company’s new charitable campaign. The oatmeal company has partnered with a big-name charitable organization that does a lot of good for people in the U.S. who need help. In this case, they will be donating oatmeal to the needy.

Big PR sent both Cate and I emails. I read it and was interested, though the event wasn’t tailored to the media – blogger, newspaper or otherwise. I figured the campaign might be worth a mention, although the event didn’t sound like something we’d cover. From the press release, it seemed like there wouldn’t be opportunity to speak to Big Name Chef or any Big Oatmeal execs. In fact, the event seemed like an opportunity to just eat free oatmeal. Sorry folks, free food isn’t enough to get me to an event.

My thoughts of writing about the campaign were completely nixed minutes later when Big PR sent me the press release another three times, and Cate as many. The email, which seemed impersonal but was still personalized, was now clearly a form letter.

Suddenly, this whole event and invitation seemed like a poor imitation at internet-PR releations. In fact, it felt like a joke on us.

So, where did Big PR go wrong?

1. The event didn’t give us an opportunity to ask questions or interact with the key players. How can we report on something we can’t do some questioning on?
2. The email was a form letter and clearly was sent because they had our email addresses – not because they were certain that we were the right people to contact.
3. The email was sent time and again to us, making it clear that it wasn’t personally intended for us.

You’ll notice that I didn’t mention any of the actual names of the companies and individuals involved. I am really not interested in giving them any degree of publicity, even negative publicity, nor do I care to impact their free oatmeal event in New York today. All I want is for more PR people to show people who write on the internet for sites, blogs or whatever more respect.